In December, news headlines reported that two scientists were found dead in Damascus, Syria, under mysterious circumstances. 

The headlines came at the back of the collapse of the government led by Bashar Al-Assad – whose family had ruled Syria for more than half a century – after rebel forces conducted a major offensive against pro-government forces.

Shadia Habal, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii who is of Syrian origin, was one of those reported dead. According to one media report, Habal was assassinated, along with her husband, by unknown gunmen.

‘The sources did not rule out Israel’s involvement in systematic assassination operations against Syrian scientists, in coordination with the Syrian armed factions, which is confirmed by the fact that the leadership of those factions ignored the Israeli raids on the Syrian army’s capabilities, including air bases, fighters, warships, strategic weapons stores, and scientific research centers,’ the story, dated 12 December, noted. 

But Habal confirmed to Chemistry World by email that she is alive and well and has no idea why her identity was stolen. ‘It was disturbing and distressing for a few weeks,’ she recalls.

A chemist called Hamdi Ismail Nada, who is also of Syrian origin, was another scientist who was declared dead. ‘Dr Nada was known as a principal figure in his field with noteworthy contributions to both local and international chemical research,’ one report declared.

However, France24 reported that Nada, who is actually a doctor based in Cairo, Egypt, had taken to social media to point out that the media had falsely used his photo. Nada’s son also tweeted that his father was alive and well. 

Zahra Al-Homsi, supposedly a nuclear microbiologist, was also reported to have been assassinated with two bullets to the head, according to media reports at the time. 

Chemistry World contacted Nada’s son on X but received no response and couldn’t reach Al-Homsi for a comment.

‘If this can happen to these two scientists, it can happen to anyone,’ says Jevin West, an information scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, who has studied misinformation in and about science. ‘That can be disorienting for anyone when there’s a new story about you that’s not true.’

‘It’s something we’re seeing more and more of,’ West adds. ‘There’s lots of stories about scientists that are not true, but I think there are a lot of examples like this.’

West and his colleagues study how rumours spread online. He notes that often there is a clear political angle, with the aim of defaming someone’s character, while other cases are bizarre and nonsensical.

In this case, West is unsure what spreading rumours about scientists’ deaths achieves. ‘It just adds noise to the system in lots of ways,’ he notes. ‘But I don’t think this is a systematic strategy where you’re just injecting noise so that you impact the levels of trust that people have in systems.’

West thinks this particular case has the traits of being part of propaganda being spread online. ‘This has all the signatures of disinformation, which is intentionally sowing false information.’

Over the last year or two, it has become harder for West and his colleagues to track rumours to the sources they originated from to figure out how fake news spreads. That’s because social media platforms like Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, have blocked or paywalled access to their application programming interfaces in the last couple of years, he notes.

‘I think these kinds of things are going to become more frequent,’ West adds, pointing to fake news about scientists. ‘And it’s not just the scientists that work on controversial issues, it’s everyone.’

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